A marathon organised by a private sporting and adventure company in the city ended up at the Nadakkavu police station on Sunday after the participants held the organisers responsible for the mismanagement of the event.
The participants including foreign runners who turned up early on the morning accused the organisers of not keeping the promises they made earlier through various online media with regard to the prizes.
Complaint
Nadakkavu police said they took up the issue after the runners complained that they could not find the organisers at the end of the event.
In the preliminary investigation, it was found that there were not even enough volunteers to guide the participants or felicitate the winners properly at the end of the event, the police said.
The participants also locked horns with one of the event coordinators at the spot in their attempt to get back the already paid registration fee.
Many of them had made online payment to attend the event. According to the police, the organisers had collected between ₹350 and ₹550 per head as registration fee.
A police officer from Nadakkavu station said the issue was settled after an organiser agreed to refund the amount to all the registered participants.
He would be booked in case of violating the promise, the official said.
For many of the participants, it was the first experience in their life. Many of the foreign participants, who emerged as winners in the event, could not even understand the unforeseen climax.
Some of them had even lost way in the absence of proper guidelines. There were even participants from other districts who stayed in various hotels in the city on Saturday to prepare for the event.
